Please note that I’ve never owned a video game console since the Atari 2600 and am completely ignorant about what games are available out there since my Mac back in college played Risk and the one with the little gnomes that dig and build bridges. I’ve never played Myst or Super Mario or Sims-anything or…well, you get the idea.
But last night, I won a PSP unit (sort of a raffle thingee). It came with a couple games and though I don’t plan on buying a lot of additional ones, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to get a game or two that used the system to its best advantage. So what games (please limit to 3 suggestions; I won’t buy more than that) should I get? What are simply unmissable? I guess you could say I like strategy games (stuff like mazes or the gnome thing or ones where you work a problem though with a combo of hand/eye and forward-thinking), but I’m not a big fan of shoot-em-up games nor of roleplay/D&D type things (I guess that one kinda varies).
What are the couple games you already got with the system? Just so we don’t recommend what you already have.
Here are a few recommendations based on what you’ve said about your tastes…
Lumines 2. Extremely addictive and engrossing puzzle game. Think a much flashier Tetris-type game with a greater emphasis on music.
You said that you’re generally not into role-playing games, but how do you feel about strategy role-playing games? Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions is a role-playing game (so you do follow through a whole storyline), but the emphasis is on strategy in battle. You spend a lot of time managing your group of characters and win battles based on the attributes of your characters, the choices you make, your positioning on the field, etc. Not everybody’s cup of tea, but those who like it can play this game for years.
You may like Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. It’s a stealth-action game. You play as a lone soldier and go on various missions using stealth rather than killing everything in your way. You do spend some time shooting things, but most of the game is you sneaking around and not getting caught by guards, security cameras, etc.
A couple of simple puzzle strategy games for you to think of, not necessarily unmissable but really good, simple fun to play
Loco Roco: a very simple, bright game with a very simple control and an addictively tuneful soundtrack.
Exit: Play as Mr Exit, whose job is to save people from disaster situations only using the things he can find on the site. Requires strategy and planning to save the day.
They came out soon after the PSP was released so they should be pretty cheap to pick up and I found they were great starter games for people to see what it can do.
I left the system at home, so I don’t quite remember, but one was, I think, a Star Wars game (not sure which one; I’m sure there are several) and one was some kind of Rollercoaster game.
I did play Tetris a lot on my Mac, so this sounds like a good one. So, in fact, does Exit as well (thanks CatinaSuit).
I remember having a game like this on the Mac where you had knights and soldiers and encampments and you sent X horsemen and Y archers to fight Z fort, etc. No graphics, just one big map and some icons for different types of soldiers I had. It was fun, but it seemed never-ending. It just kept going and going and going. I guess that’s not too bad if some impression of progress is made, or if new variations are introduced. I guess I’m open to those types of things, as long as a year-long campaign isn’t an inevitable by-product!
Strategy RPGs are always based around a story, so they definitely have an ending, with varying degrees of replayability after you finish it. Strategy RPGs are definitely the PSPs strong suit at the moment. Final Fantasy Tactics: Lion Wars, Jeanne D’Arc, and Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness are all excellent.
Crush is another good PSP game. It’s by and large a puzzle game, where you direct a character around a world in which you need to solve puzzle to progress. The key part of it is switching between a 2D and 3D perspective, which is where the games title comes from. You “crush” the 3D environment into 2D to solve puzzles that you couldn’t in 3D.
Field Commander is a fun one. It has been out for a couple years now too, so you should be able to grab it cheap.
Katamari Damacy is another great game. Granted, I’ve only played the PS2 version, but the game itself is a blast and unlike, probably, any other you’ve seen.
Hot Shots Golf is a lot of fun. I generally hate sports games and I would never have tried it if I hadn’t gotten a copy for free. It turned out to be really addictive.
You might also check out Patapon. It’s like a war game crossed with Dance Dance Revolution.
I just received Daxter for a couple of days, have played it for many times, really quite fun. Daxter is quite possibly the best PSP game out there, with awesome graphics, gameplay, story, and many more features. you won’t be disappointed with this game. It does everything great. I got it at a deal site for $19, you can look up: http://www.dealstudio.com/searchdeals.php?deal_id=88948&ru=290
I don’t think PSP has many good games, but Daxter is definitely the exception.
OK, thanks to some of the suggestions here, as well as YouTube, which was immeasurably helpful in visualizing things the was mere descriptions really can’t do, I’ve ordered LocoRoco and Crush, so thank you CatinaSuit and Fredescu in particular (and everyone else, of course). I also ordered Lemmings, which was the game I was trying to remember in the OP. Looooooved that when it was on the PC, so I’ll have the sense memory of that to work off of.
I also spent most of Saturday giving the Star Wars Battlefront game a whirl. Suffice it to say–not really my thing. The shooting was fine, but it seems the real entertainment value is in the customization and variation (weapons, skillsets, mobility, characters, etc.). I’m afraid the learning curve is too sharp for me, which makes it little more than a shooting game. And as for the flying component–Yeesh! I was on the learner template for 40 minutes trying to shoot down one freaking TIE fighter. I think there’s an assumed familiarity with the controls and the multi-tasking involved in handling these games that are well beyond me (please note, I’ve never even played Nintendo, let alone XBox or PS2 or whatever else is out there), so anything that involves too much mode-setting and controller-rejiggering is just not going to be for me. I couldn’t even make my shooting guy roll right. I think this experience was helpful in narrowing down some of the above choices–many of which sounded great in theory but I think were clearly (at least for now) out of my league and not worth the very casual investment (time-wise) I was looking for.
So Thanks! And I’ll report back on how those worked for me when they arrive.
So, in fact, does Exit as well (thanks CatinaSuit).